WEBVTT Kind: captions; Language: en 00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:25.001 Yep, here comes the Fort Cavalry stage, right on time. 00:00:25.001 --> 00:00:29.000 Moving along the lonely road through Indian Country, heading west. 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:33.001 Ah, ah, gotta reach the Rocky Mountains by sundown. 00:00:34.001 --> 00:00:36.000 Up on top, you could be anywhere. 00:00:36.001 --> 00:00:39.000 The trail doesn't have any signposts after you leave Fort Cavalry. 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:43.000 You could be anywhere on the Great Plains in the 1800s, when 00:00:43.000 --> 00:00:45.000 the west was really wild. 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:49.001 Now this may be Indian territory, and it may look like the old 00:00:49.001 --> 00:00:51.001 west, but the time is today. 00:00:51.001 --> 00:00:57.000 And the place is Freedom Land, a big entertainment park in the Bronx, in the 00:00:57.000 --> 00:01:00.001 state of New York, just half an hour by subway from Times 00:01:00.001 --> 00:01:02.000 Square in New York City. 00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:06.001 Here they built the places and the buildings representing 200 00:01:06.001 --> 00:01:08.000 years of American history. 00:01:08.001 --> 00:01:11.001 And riding shotgun across the Great Plains is only one 00:01:11.001 --> 00:01:13.000 part of the story of our country. 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:16.001 Hey, what's happening over there in Chicago? 00:01:17.001 --> 00:01:19.001 Fire! Look at that! 00:01:19.001 --> 00:01:22.000 It's the Chicago Fire of 1871. 00:01:23.000 --> 00:01:25.001 Hurry up, men! We're going to need volunteers for this one. 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:27.000 Everybody man the pump. 00:01:27.001 --> 00:01:30.001 We've got to get water on the fire or the whole city will go. 00:01:30.001 --> 00:01:33.000 Faster, men. Keep that pump going. 00:01:33.001 --> 00:01:37.001 Mrs. O'Leary's cow has kicked over a lantern, and the flames are spreading fast. 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:43.001 Keep that pump going back there. It's getting out of control. 00:01:44.001 --> 00:01:46.001 This fireman doesn't look very worried. 00:01:47.000 --> 00:01:52.001 Here at Freedom Land, they have the Chicago Fire every half hour, every day. 00:01:54.001 --> 00:02:01.000 And the gas flames behind the windows of those fireproof buildings always 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:02.001 go out on schedule. 00:02:03.000 --> 00:02:05.000 But it's lots of fun because it's make-believe. 00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:11.001 In Chicago, in 1871, they didn't have fireproof buildings, and the big fire was 00:02:11.001 --> 00:02:16.000 an important event in American history, brought to life at Freedom Land. 00:02:16.001 --> 00:02:21.000 Down on Cortland Street, they built little old New York, just the way it was 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:22.001 between 1850 and 1890. 00:02:23.001 --> 00:02:26.000 In those days, horse-drawn trolleys were the latest 00:02:26.000 --> 00:02:27.001 thing for short trips in the city. 00:02:28.001 --> 00:02:33.000 If you had to go out of town, maybe as far as five miles, you rented a 00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:35.000 horse if you didn't have one of your own. 00:02:35.001 --> 00:02:40.000 If you planned a real long trip, a hundred miles or more, you took the train. 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:44.001 There's the Santa Fe Railroad train getting ready for the long, 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:46.001 dangerous journey to San Francisco. 00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:55.000 Here's another way people travel in the 00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:59.000 1800s, on a sternwheel steamboat, all aboard. 00:03:00.001 --> 00:03:03.001 The paddlewheel starts turning, and away you go. 00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:20.000 Traveling along, you can get a good idea of how our country looked in the days 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:24.000 when there were only a few roads, and the sternwheelers and riverboats were 00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:25.001 used to carry most of the heavy freight. 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:33.000 The bow of the boat is a good place to stand if you want 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:35.000 to see what's coming up around the next bend. 00:03:35.001 --> 00:03:37.001 If your mother lets you stay there. 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:48.001 There's the Santa Fe special heading west, just like the days when there was only 00:03:48.001 --> 00:03:50.001 one railroad line from coast to coast. 00:03:53.000 --> 00:04:00.000 On board one of the big sternwheelers at Freedom Land, you take a trip back to 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:03.001 the days when there were only a few cities on the east coast of our country, and 00:04:03.001 --> 00:04:07.000 most of the land west of the Mississippi was a wide-open frontier. 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:15.000 So let's go ashore and see some of the other reminders of our past here in this 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:16.001 showcase of American history. 00:04:18.001 --> 00:04:25.000 In the untamed 00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:29.000 northwest, you can take a ride in one of the bull boats, traveling past a 00:04:29.000 --> 00:04:33.000 trapper's cabin back to the time of the historic Lewis and Clark expedition. 00:04:33.001 --> 00:04:37.000 You'll follow the route of the fur trappers, who were the first white men to see 00:04:37.000 --> 00:04:41.001 many parts of our country because they had to move farther and farther away from 00:04:41.001 --> 00:04:43.001 the new villages and towns to trap and hunt. 00:04:46.001 --> 00:04:52.001 Look, there's a moose looking us over. Don't 00:04:52.001 --> 00:04:54.001 move, he might charge the boat. 00:04:57.001 --> 00:05:01.001 There's an Indian carving a totem pole in a village just as it might have looked 00:05:01.001 --> 00:05:04.001 to a boatload of fur trappers as he kept pushing northwest. 00:05:05.001 --> 00:05:07.001 These Indians look friendly, but no telling what's 00:05:07.001 --> 00:05:09.001 coming up around the next bend. 00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:23.001 If you want to see more of Freedom Land, the best thing to do is go up way up 00:05:23.001 --> 00:05:29.001 high, riding in an ore bucket from the Tucson Mining Company 00:05:29.001 --> 00:05:32.000 high above the buildings and the people. 00:05:32.001 --> 00:05:35.001 From here, you can see most of Freedom Land and pick out 00:05:35.001 --> 00:05:37.000 the spots you want to visit next time. 00:05:41.001 --> 00:05:47.000 205 acres of fun and tradition, from San Francisco in 1906 across the Great 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:52.001 Plains of the 1800s, through the old southwest of 1890 to the not-so-distant 00:05:52.001 --> 00:05:57.000 future at Satellite City, 200 years of American history. 00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:02.001 From the days when herds of buffalo roamed the west to the present and beyond, 00:06:03.001 --> 00:06:08.001 there are thousands of things to see, too many to look at on this trip, but all 00:06:08.001 --> 00:06:12.001 of them are fun, and all of them will help you appreciate 00:06:12.001 --> 00:06:14.000 the facts in your history books. 00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:31.000 This is history brought to 00:06:31.000 --> 00:06:35.001 life, the history of the country that gave this place its name, Freedom Land. 00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:42.001 Now it's time we got back on solid ground again, back to the Bronx, in the state 00:06:42.001 --> 00:06:44.001 of New York. So long!